Pint of Science, US

Wow - it's been a while since I wrote anything.  A combination of several academic visits from +Alex Fletcher and Anita Hjelmeland, trying desperately to make some headway on my thesis, and a teething toddler left this blogging effort at the bottom of the pile.  I've got a few posts I need to write to catch up, but I thought I'd start with this one.

Last year, a movement was started in the UK called pint of science who's stated mission is to bring top scientist into pubs to communicate their passion for science to everyman.  They began with 15 pubs in London, Oxford and Cambridge for a several days long festival to great acclaim.  The movement is now spreading, and my good friends +Parmvir Bahia, +David Basanta, +Arturo Araujo and new friend +Angela Rey decided to start the movement here in the US - aptly named, Pint of Science, US.  They have worked to find their own spin on the theme, and settled on holding both a live event, and also on a podcast, on a monthly basis.  The central theme is the same - communicate what it is that we do as scientists, and why we do it, to the folks with whom we live and work.

The first even was held two weeks ago today at the New World Brewery in Tampa, FL.  I was honored to be asked by my friends to be the first speaker.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing.  The expectations are low (or, undefined), but it is also a difficult ask, because there is no predetermined script to follow.  So, you'll notice some hems and hahs in my podcast.

PB doing the introduction...

The audience at this, the inaugural event, consisted entirely of friends and co-workers, so it felt a little strange telling my life story and trying to convince 'people' that mathematics can help to play a role in cancer research (as everyone knew my life story and DOES mathematical cancer research).  So, in some ways, this event was more difficult than any other event like this that I've done.  Strange to admit, but I was sweating bullets!

Anywho, after some gentle editing from the Pint of Science US team, a podcast emerged and the event was a success.  I had a great time participating, and look forward to the next even when I can have a pint and learn about some neuroscience from our friend Tom Taylor-Clark, at USF.

I certainly recommend coming to the event, and subscribing to the podcasts - which are available on iTunes as well as through the link here.  You can also follow Pint of Science US on G+ or on twitter @pintofscienceUS for updates.

Have a pint, talk about science.

Hello world

I've been meaning to start this blog for a long time now.  A year ago, at TEDMED 2012, I met a guy backstage, Jonathan Eisen, who I didn't know from Adam.  It turns out, he's a pretty big deal, and more importantly, a really nice guy, a great scientist, science communicator and now a mentor and friend.  He  writes a science blog I follow, The Tree of Life and gave a great talk at that meeting called 'Meet your microbes', where he talked about fecal transplants, among other things.  You can watch his talk here.

It was our first conversation backstage though, when he challenged me about my 'job' as a scientist, that I remember best.  It went like this:

Jonathan: Oh cool, you do theoretical biology research? What's your twitter handle?

Me: I don't use that stuff, I just do science.

Jonathan: Wait, what's your job as a scientist then?

Me: Uhhh... My job is to do science.

Jonathan: No, your job is to do and then communicate science.  And if you aren't using social media and a blog to do that, you aren't doing it as effectively as you could be.

**update - just after I started this blog, members of Jonathan's lab published this awesome paper in PLoS Biology to help teach scientists how to use social media... I'm trying!**

So, I signed up to twitter (follow me if you wish, I'm @CancerConnector) and vowed to start writing a blog about science. Last week, at TEDMED 2013, I hung out with Jonathan again, and...  well, I'm writing a blog now.

My hopes for this blog are to write about my disparate interests in a somewhat more casual way than I would for official publications.  If you don't know me, I'm a radiation oncologist (someone who takes care of cancer patients and uses radiation therapy to help in their treatment) who does theoretical research into the way cancer works.  This research is usually in the form of mathematical models, but I work closely with biologists as well to ensure that my models are testable.  Because of my background, I have other interests that may find their way into this blog as well that include medical education (here's a recent article on Huffington Post), patient-doctor communication, global health, care of veterans and random medical essays... so bear with me.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also embed my own TEDMED talk as it nicely summarizes ME and will give a sense of who I am and what I'm generally about.  Here I am:

So.  There it is.  I hope this will be useful and informative.  Talk to you soon...